When the bombs happened we realised very quickly, ourselves and other specialist services, that there would be a massive group of people who would be affected as a result of the atrocity. There has been a lot of research looking at other terrorist incidents which suggests around 30-40% of people who are directly exposed to an attack of this nature go on to develop Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other mental health problems.

When 10 years later you still feel like you have dropped your keys down the drain, redemption is a bit more mysterious. I don't find comfort in the comparison between what was and what is, but in the presence of One who shares in our suffering and offers us hope.

For all journalists these type of events will occur a number of times during a career. Some make their name from how they report or handle them. Most, like me, just do a job and move on. Hearing the stories of that day ten years ago reminds me that for many 'moving on' is not really an option.​

A decade on from 7/7 its a day that has and is shaping things to come for my generation as we all continue to feel it's consequences - but difficulties often prove to be the most testing of times, pushing you to make choices and the 7th of July 2005 was a difficult day for London.

As we reflect, ten years on, on a dark day in London's history, we remember our city's proud history of dealing with whatever is thrown at it and look forward, together, to doing the same with the current challenges we face and those that are bound to confront us in the years ahead. For London is, at its very best, a place of optimism, of hope and of an age-old determination to build a future that is brighter than the past.

Like many Londoners, 7 July 2005 began for me as a normal working day. I drove from my flat in Queens Park to Ealing where I was working as an estate agent. Morning briefing done, our team of sales negotiators 'hit the phones' to drum up business and book appointments. Then people's mobiles started beeping. Other offices started calling in. Something was going on in central London.

The legacy left by these events has however been more far-reaching than might have been expected, having had something of a profound impact on how we live our everyday lives. From more security checks at airports and the increased monitoring of social media through to the new counter-terror measures requiring public sector workers to play a greater role in combating extremism, and schools being required to teach 'British values', 7/7's impact has been significant.

That evening, as I absorbed the news, I made a vow to travel by tube the next morning, because if I didn't, my thoughts were that I would not step foot on another underground train for fear of what it might bring. I remember my intense apprehension on the Northern Line platform at Waterloo as the tube doors opened to reveal an empty carriage.

Ten years later the memory has warped and weathered, but there are some odd things that stick in my mind. The man who told a woman next to me, as we ambled home in a daze, that she "wouldn't pull" that day because of the mascara running down her face. It was soot, and she'd been crying.

It will be little comfort to those people that SAN exists or that the London 7/7 commemoration is taking place, but over the months and years, those united by such terrible circumstances will start to help and support each other to cope and recover and to form a powerful force for social change.